Castleford boss wants talks with referees boss

Tony Harber

Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell wants clear the air talks with the Rugby League’s head of match officials after being unhappy with the way Ben Thaler spoke to his players during the game with Wigan Warriors.

After a game the Tigers narrowly lost 33-26 Powell said that referee Thaler – no stranger to controversy in his handling of Tigers games – had lost his cool and showed a lack of respect to the Castleford players in the way he talked to them on the field.

A number of controversial decisions also went against Cas, who had Jake Webster sin-binned for foul language in questioning one of them, and Powell would like some clarification from RFL referees boss Steve Ganson and possibly the officials themselves.

He told the Express: “I’ve got some work to do in terms of straightening things out. I’ve never had any problem with our boys being spoken to about lack of discipline.

“They’ve generally been very respectful to referees and will continue to do that. But obviously you expect that in return and I don’t think that was the case.

“There’s some clear issues there that I’ve got to work through with Steve Ganson and the referees themselves.

“It’s important we get it thrashed out and if there are any issues we get over them.”

Powell had no issues with the Webster yellow card and no complaint over the result, although he agreed big decisions went against his team.

He said: “We got some real tough calls both in terms of the penalties that were given and then the video referee stuff that was a bit baffling at times.

“Some of the decisions that went against us made life really difficult, but we’ve got to be able to take it into our own hands. There’s clearly some issues that need to be sorted out off the field. But on the field we weren’t that far away and it’s just a little bit disappointing and a little bit frustrating that we weren’t able to get the win when we were right in the fight all the way through.”